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Abstract

Introduction: The 200-Meter Fast Walk Test (200-mFWT) has recently been designed to assess functional capacities at a higher intensity level than does the 6-Minute Walk Test in healthy elderly people and in coronary artery disease (CAD) patient. Objective: to investigate the reliability, validity, and responsiveness of the 200-mFWT in coronary artery disease CAD patients engaged in a cardiac rehabilitation program. Design: Descriptive study. Setting: tertiary care hospital. Subjects: Thirty stable CAD patients (51.9±8.7 yrs), referred to the cardiac rehabilitation department after an acute coronary syndrom (ACS). Main measures: 6MWT distance, time to perform the 200-mFWT, peak power output of the graded maximal exercise test (GMET), before and after the program; SF-36 quality of life questionnaire at baseline. Walk tests were performed twice at baseline to assess reliability.

Results: The 200-mFWT was highly reliable (ICC=0.97). It was significantly correlated with the GMET peak power and the 6-MWT at baseline (r=-0.417; p<0.05; and r=-0.566; p<0.01, respectively) and after the training program (r=-0.460, p<0.05; and r=-0.926; p<0.01respectively). At baseline, there was a strong correlation between the 200-mFWT time and the physical component score of the SF-36 (r=-0.77; P<0.01), but not between the 200-mFWT time and the SF-36 mental component score. Mean 200-mFWT time was significantly different between the patients performing ≤ 90Watts (n=11) or ≥ 100Watts (n=19) at the baseline GMET (121.7±13.6 vs 115.5±10.1 sec; P<0.05). The responsiveness was strong with a standardized response mean at 1.11.

Conclusion: the 200-mFWT is a reliable, valid, discriminant, and responsive high-intensity walk test in CAD patients after an ACS. It can thus give additional information to those given by the 6-MWT and the GMET.